Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation (commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, and formerly known as Famous Players-Lasky Corporation) is a film studio, television production company and motion picture distributor, consistently ranked as one of the "Big Six" film studios of Hollywood. It is a subsidiary of US media conglomerate Viacom. Paramount is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It has distributed several successful film series, such as Transformers, Mission: Impossible, the Marvel Cinematic Universe series (2008–11), Indiana Jones (1981–2008), The Godfather, Star Trek, Jack Ryan, Jackass, The Bad News Bears, Beverly Hills Cop, "Crocodile" Dundee, Paranormal Activity, Friday the 13th, G.I. Joe and Terminator. In 2014, Paramount Pictures was the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all its films in digital-form only. Logo The distinctively pyramidal Paramount mountain has been the company's logo since its inception and is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo. The logo appeared at the start of many cartoons. In the sound era, the logo was accompanied by a fanfare called Paramount on Parade after the film of the same name, released in 1930. The words to the fanfare, originally sung in the 1930 film, were "Proud of the crowd that will never be loud, it's Paramount on Parade." Legend has it that the mountain is based on a doodle made by W. W. Hodkinson during a meeting with Adolph Zukor. It is said to be based on the memories of his childhood in Utah. Some claim that Utah's Ben Lomond is the mountain Hodkinson doodled, and that Peru's Artesonraju is the mountain in the live-action logo, while others claim that the Italian side of Monviso inspired the logo. Some editions of the logo bear a striking resemblance to the Pfeifferhorn, another Wasatch Range peak. The motion picture logo has gone through many changes over the years: *The logo began as a somewhat indistinct charcoal rendering of the mountain ringed with superimposed stars. The logo originally had twenty-four stars, as a tribute to the then current system of contracts for actors, since Paramount had twenty-four stars signed at the time. *In movies of the late 1920s and early 1930s, the number of stars encircling the mountain sometimes varied. As an example, twenty-five stars are seen in the logo displayed at the end of the Marx Brothers film The Cocoanuts (1929), and twenty-three are visible at the beginning of Horse Feathers (1932). *Starting in 1934 and lasting until 1943, opening Paramount logos that appeared before color cartoons would have a byline at the bottom of the mountain. This was due to Max Fleischer's stereoptical process which placed animated cels in front of three-dimensional backgrounds. From 1934 to 1937, it read "PATENT PENDING FOR SPECIAL PROCESSES USED IN THIS PRODUCTION". Once Max Fleischer received his patent for the process in 1937, the opening byline read "STEREOPTICAL PROCESS AND APPARATUS PATENT NO. 2054414", and was even used on cartoons that did not utilize the process. In addition, starting in 1936, the ending logo would have the byline "in TECHNICOLOR". *Many of the George Pal Puppetoons of the 1940s would utilize the Paramount "Pie" logo in the opening and ending title cards. *In 1951, the logo was redesigned as a matte painting created by Jan Domela. *A newer, more realistic-looking logo debuted in 1953 for Paramount films made in 3D. It was reworked in early-to-mid 1954 for Paramount films made in widescreen process VistaVision. The text VistaVision – Motion Picture High Fidelity was often imposed over the Paramount logo briefly before dissolving into the title sequence. In early 1968, the text "A Paramount Picture/Release" was shortened to "Paramount", and the byline A Gulf+Western Company appeared on the bottom. The logo was given yet another modification in 1974, with the number of stars being reduced to 22, and the Paramount text and Gulf+Western byline appearing in different fonts. *A stylized version of the mountain was featured in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. The mountain retained its conical shape but with a red granite tone and a more angular summit under a red clouded sky to suggest the appearance of Mount Sinai for this single motion picture. Its circle of stars faded in with the announcement: "Paramount Presents – A Cecil B. DeMille Production." *In September 1975, the logo was simplified in a shade of blue, adopting the modified design of the 1968 print logo, which was in use for many decades afterward. *The studio launched an entirely new logo in December 1986 with computer-generated imagery of a lake and stars. This version of the Paramount logo was designed by Dario Campanile and animated by Apogee, Inc; for this logo, the stars would move across the screen into the arc shape instead of it being superimposed over the mountain as it was before. When Gulf + Western became Paramount Communications, and continuing until 2002, the Paramount logo would appear first followed by the underline and the byline beneath it. An enhanced version of this logo debuted on June 30, 1999 with South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. *In December 2001, an updated logo was introduced in which shooting stars would fall from a night sky to form the arc while the Paramount logo would fly into place between them. The Viacom byline was changed on May 7, 2010. The south col area of Mount Everest became the primary basis. The music is accompanied by Paramount on Parade. *On December 16, 2011, an updated logo was launched. The animation was done by Devastudios, Inc. The new logo includes a surrounding mountain range and the sun shining in the background. Michael Giacchino composed the logo's new fanfare. Category:Film distributors of the United States